Otholiell Aras Nín
by Quinn Aries
Summary: Pippa was sure she was dreaming, at least at first. She dreams of fantastic worlds, a strange power, and an elf king, but they can't really be real, can they?


**I'm posting this first chapter to see what you readers think and get some feedback** **. I"ll likely not get around to writing much for this story while I work on my other current LOTR fic, Bones. Please review if you can, i'm eager to hear what you think!**

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Perhaps at first it had only been a lucid dream.

Pippa found herself in a never-ending field of sunflowers, feeling the warmth of the very air that carried the scent of pollen and honey. She was dreaming again, off away from the real world in something superior and of her own making. Maladaptive they called it, and unhealthy. She called it simple imagination. But how could this be simple? She could feel everything here as real as real can be and sure to the core.

She let out a whoop of excitement which turned into a sneeze when she stirred up a gust of pollen. She rubbed her nose and glanced all around.

"This isn't what I expected." _I wonder how my mind came up with this place?_ _I've never seen anything quite like it._ That was especially strange considering she'd never set foot outside the concrete jungle that was New York in her life.

She woke in a cold bedroom with the smell of eggs frying wafting from down the hall. The sound of the TV blaring was a faint buzz in her ear.

Her days were as average as can be, and if not for the obvious that she was living a normal life and growing as one should, she could have sworn everything repeated itself like it was Groundhog Day.

Mom was cooking breakfast, Dad was gone to work. Life was good and gray and more predictable than a losing lottery card.

She would hustle off to school, smile and learn, gush about science, music, and gossip with classmates, and return home to repeat it all over the next morning. In her effort to avoid the gray that was all encompassing, she dyed her short curls the brightest shade of pink she could get her hands on and smiled to herself at the thought that at least she was not as monotone as the rest.

So be it then that her only reprieve came in the form of dreams, waking and sleeping. She could close her eyes and be in a different world, if even for a moment. Exploring the stars, flying in a hot air balloon that defied physics as it hovered over the mouth of a live volcano, climbing Rapunzel's hair to the top of an impossible tower.

Of course, she'd never had a lucid dream before, but this was what it was supposed to be like. An escape where it felt like being awake until you were actually awake, and you could recall amazing details.

In the dreams, night after night, she would find herself in a field of flowers surrounded by woods and mountains like something from a picture book. She beamed, pulled her hands through the grasses, and ran like she had never run in real life.

In the real world, she soon learned the repercussions of her frequent trips into la-la land. Angry teachers didn't seem to realize she was in 'the zone' until it was too late and she'd only heard maybe three sentences in an entire lesson.

There was a rapping on her desk that rung in her ears and she was met with a face full of distressed Ms. Makoney wielding a wooden ruler giving her best 'i'm not mad, just disappointed' look.

"Honey, if we're going to have these issues all semester, I think it best if we discuss this in private, mmkay?"

Pippa nodded slowly, cheeks slightly reddened.

At one point therapy was mentioned. That never happened thank god but Pippa's parents made sure to scold the daydreams from her skull. 'School is a priority,' was the phrase that came up most often.

After a few nights, she tried to control her dreams and that didn't quite go to plan. At first, nothing happened and she just wanted to give up and return to the pattern of basking in the gold of her dreams before returning to the gray of the real world.

Then she was galloping, gliding through the air, hooved and utterly amazed at the power of her own mind. She leapt as a human and landed as a doe, limber and graceful. Her joy was heightened and this out-of-body experience was so strange and sudden even for a dream. She stumbled very ungracefully and struggled fruitlessly a moment before her legs gave out and she flopped into a four-legged heap of elation into the grass. She popped back into her human self, then she was awake.

Next time she slept, she decided with certainty to venture beyond the silly field of flowers into the rest of the dreamscape, and with a dramatic flourish of her arm, pointed herself towards the wood that hung always out of the corner of her eye.

Somewhere along the walk, she began experimenting with this dream power, the only thing she could change. She bounced in and out of her deer form, testing her legs until she could figure out this all-fours thing. She felt lighter than air, and she could flick her ears to and fro much like a cat. She had a tail, a stubby little thing that swayed side to side. No antlers though; she could do without the extra weight.

Eventually she settled into her new shape, striding closer and closer to the wood. Up close, the trees were huge and intimidating with gnarled branches that interlocked with each other and made the whole canopy look like a cat's cradle gone wrong. It reminded her of the first scene of Snow White in the woods where the trees were haunting and seemed to come alive. Not to mention the creepy overgrown statuary by the edge of the wood.

She could smell something she'd certainly never smelled before in her life, but it seemed at once familiar and beckoning.

 _Scary forest? They're just trees, she thought to herself. It's just my dream picking up my subconscious. Maybe if I follow that smell, it'll lead me to my inner self or some emotional core or… something? Chakras?_

The smell drew her in, despite her hesitation. She followed her superior nose through trees and around bramble patches and over small creeks for what felt like hours.

It was a herd, she realized with a start. A herd of elk, just like her but not. They were bigger. There were five of them in this small clearing with an even smaller pond fed from the creek. A male, three females and a young male calf that was curled against the side of it's mother.

They saw her and as opposed to what she expected, namely some sort of negative 'get out of my territory bucko' attitude, the male and two of the females approached her, sniffing around.

She could tell, somehow, maybe an instinct of the species or just body language and cues, what they communicated to one another. It was clear as day, translated in her still very human mind.

The male inclined his head. " _We've been waiting for you, cousin, and have caught your scent on the wind for many days now."_

The smaller female with the proud arch to her neck snorted. " _Our herd needs no more competition."_ She stalked off with a swish of her tail, stooping to drink from the pond.

Pippa knew this was where her dreams pulled her and this was where she was meant to stay for the time being. She was home.

Then she was awake again.

"Why do you always fall asleep in class?" A girl she vaguely knew and cared little for sitting at Pippa's table in the cafeteria asked. "I was sure the teacher would starting rocking your desk or smack the ruler down this time."

Pippa stabbed her lettuce with more force than necessary. "I wasn't sleeping, I was just-"

"Resting your eyes a moment?"

"Daydreaming," she bit out with other sharp jab at the wilting salad on her plate. A predictable snort from the girl made her cheeks burn.

"Daydreaming? Aren't you, like, seventeen?"

 _Yes_ , but Pippa said said nothing.

She was in the dream again, surrounded by elk. She was human though, and worried for a split second before realizing that she was dreaming and she was just silly. Besides, the herd seemed not to notice or care. The calf who was just beginning to walk, stumbled with cheer around the pond, stopping to sniff at her feet and chew at the corner of her pant leg before losing interest.

This repeating dream was so simple and yet pleasurable. The calmness of the wood was constant, despite its strangeness and the dark ugly trees.

She leaned against a tree, feeling strangely tired for her being in a dream. She popped back into a deer, curling up against the tree roots. She felt herself nodding off, but a new scent caught in her nose and she looked up, ear twitching at the almost invisible sound of footsteps.

Instead of running away, the male elk lifted his head and took a smooth step forward.

There was a man standing at the edge of the clearing, except he was no man. He was too _different_ to be considered such, and very pretty for a male. He was impossibly tall and wearing silver robes that trailed behind him. Pippa tilted her head in confusion, then saw the young boy behind him clutching the robes from behind his legs.

 _Father and son?_

"He is also a woodland king," the man whispered to his son, placing an encouraging hand on his back and nudging him forward.

The buck approached the man first, allowing himself to be patted on the nose and to have his head carefully stroked. The son followed, stretching on his tiptoes to feel the fur along his neck. He looked like he was not more than seven years old, with childishly wide blue eyes.

Pippa hung back, alarmed and confused. Her alarm only heightened when the man's gaze turned from the buck to the rest of the clearing and eventually landed on her.

"Ah, that's new," he murmured. Crouching and continuing to keep his hand on his son's back, he clicked his teeth "Legolas, look. A stray doe has found herself lost in the herd."

"Is she scared of us, Ada?" he asked.

"Perhaps. Approach slowly, don't startle her." The boy, Legolas, took a very hesitant step forward.

Pippa knew she was dreaming of these ethereal not-men, who were not hunters. _They're safe,_ she decided. She trotted up to the boy, giving him a small nudge in the stomach with her speckled head.

He was still hesitant, but a grin spread across his lips and he stroked her head which she decided felt very nice indeed.

"She likes me!" Legolas whisper-shouted. The man nodded with a closed smile, giving the elk one last stroke before pulling his son back again. He seemed to want to keep the boy close, and he lead him out of the clearing. She could hear them quietly conversing in some kind of flowing tongue as they walked. She wasn't sure what it was, maybe Arabic? But how would she even know what Arabic sounded like?

She awoke again to find herself staring at the gray ceiling, with visions of elk and angels spinning behind her eyes.


End file.
